n164. See Mark A. Hall& Ronald F. Wright, Systematic Content Analysis of Judicial Opinions, 95 Cal. L. Rev. 63, 64 (2008) (describing insights to be drawn from studies of large groups of judicial opinions); see also Katherine Barnes, Assessing the Counterfactual: The Efficacy of Drug Interdiction Absent Racial Profiling, 54 Duke L.J. 1089, 1119-40 (2005) (investigating the costs and benefits of racial profiling in the context of drug interdiction); Gross & Barnes, supra note 75, at 662-70. One interesting
resource that is less well known than it should be is a joint project of scholars and former journalist David Burnham called TRAC (and its federal government focused arm, TRACFED). See generally David Burnham& Susan Long, Tracking Judges, 16 Fed. Sent'g.Rep. 26 (2003) (explaining TRAC and its purposes). TRACFED collects data from government databases, often through the painful process of FOIA requests, and then makes its data available to journalists and researchers with a powerful analytic interface. See
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), http://trac.syr.edu (last visited Oct. 16, 2008) ("Your source for comprehensive, independent, and nonpartisan information about federal enforcement, staffing, and spending."); TRACFED,http://tracfed.syr.edu (last visited Oct. 16, 2008) ("A unique web-based service for understandable, authoritative, and complete information about the federal government - how it enforces the law, where it assigns its employees, and how it spends out money.").
TRAC also issues occasional reports on critical policy issues. See, e.g., TRAC Immigration, Immigration Enforcement: The Rhetoric, The Reality http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/178/ (last visited Oct. 16, 2008). But see generally Kevin Blackwell, The
Problem with TRAC, 16 Fed. Sent'g Rep. 31 (2003) (praising TRAC's motive but questioning the quality of TRAC sentencing data
One interesting resource that is less well known than it should be is a joint project of scholars and former journalist David Burnham called TRAC (and its federal government focused arm, TRACFED). See generally David Burnham & Susan Long, Tracking Judges, 16 Fed. Sent'g.Rep. 26 (2003) (explaining TRAC and its purposes). TRACFED collects data from government databases, often through the painful process of FOIA requests, and then makes its data available to journalists and researchers with a powerful analytic interface.